


Nanotechnology for Dummies

by LIngall



Series: We Can Take it One Step at a Time (I’d like that very much) [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale, Romance, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 06:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11286000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LIngall/pseuds/LIngall
Summary: Written for the Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon prompt "Out of Place."Oliver joins Felicity on a Smoak Technology business trip to Hub City. Although Felicity is having the time of her life Oliver is out of his element. Luckily they make a good team in both business and pleasure.Thanks so much to @pleasantfanandstudent for creating the lovely cover art.





	Nanotechnology for Dummies

[Cover Art by PleasantFanAndStudent](http://pleasantfanandstudent.tumblr.com/image/162345332723))

<============>

Oliver had never felt more out of place. He pulled back the blackout curtains and looked out over the city. Hub City was grittier than he remembered. Who knew that this former manufacturing town would become the home to a newly burgeoning tech renaissance? He was not happy to be cooped up alone in very luxurious hotel room. Evening could not come soon enough. It would be a long day until he could reunite with Felicity and join her and the VP of Technology of her new supplier for dinner.

_“Remember, you were the one that wanted to tag along.”_

It had already been two excruciatingly long days of her dashing off each morning at an ungodly hour leaving him wanting with only a chaste kiss as a goodbye. Then she’d return well after he had already fallen asleep. His only comfort was to roll over and pull her close before being pulled back into sleep again.

_“If I had wanted a romantic get-a-way I should have suggested that instead of this business trip. This is normal, couples travel on business together, but I was hoping to see more of her while I was actually awake.”_

His mind wandered back to revisit their last trip to Hub City. Felicity was in her element at the blackjack table at the underground casino. How often do you meet an ancient shaman who is willing to bestow a lesson on how to repel black magic? That night didn’t turn out to be very fun, but at least it wasn’t boring.

_“That dress,”_ he groaned as he covered his head with the fluffy overstuffed pillow.

Oliver replayed his conversation with Felicity from earlier in the week.

_“I need to fly out to Hub City. This supplier won't sign on the dotted line without meeting me in person. But what he doesn’t know is that I’m dying to see his new nanotechnology lab. They are producing nano-tech neodymium magnets. Can you believe it! I’ll only be gone a few days. I know you're busy, so I won’t mind if you can’t join me.”_

_“I know you don’t need me to come but I wouldn’t mind tagging along, strictly for moral support of course,” Oliver smiled, “I always need to rack up additional brownie points as your very supportive boyfriend.”_

_“Strictly for moral support,” echoed Felicity, “Works for me, supportive boyfriend.”_

<============>

A chime on his phone brought him back to the present.

**[ Hey, you’ll need to ask reception to call up to the lab when you arrive. No cell service. See you around 5 pm <3 Felicity ] **

_“Maybe a quick workout would fill my afternoon,”_ he thought.

In a few moments he made his way down to the fitness center and hopped on the treadmill. The time passed quickly and before he knew it he had run nearly 6 miles. He stepped off the treadmill and grabbed a towel off the wire rack. He sat down on a bench to cool off.

“I'm so glad they have this gym here, I would have killed my assistant if she booked me at another hotel without decent fitness equipment,” shared a tall and shapely brunette from across the room.

“I'm Susan by the way,” she added.

Oliver muffled his laugh with his towel, _“Susan, huh. Felicity won’t believe this.”_

“Are you here on business or pleasure? Mister …”

“Oliver.”

“Mr. Oliver, it a pleasure to meet you.”

“No, it’s just Oliver.”

She moved over to where he was sitting and said, “You can't possibly be just anything.”

Without letting her get in another word he stood and maneuvered around her to head to the door.

“It was nice to meet you, enjoy the rest of your workout,” he called out without turning back.

“Humph. What’s his problem?”

Feeling more at home back in his suit and tie, Oliver entered the opulent lobby of Compact Magnet Inc. He approached the receptionist who was hidden behind the sleek silver counter typing furiously at her keyboard .

“Good evening, I’m Oliver Queen, I’m here to meet Felicity Smoak. She told me that you would need to get a message to her since she's working up in the R&D lab. No cell service. Something about a far-a-way cage, you know shielding from the electrostatic waves.”

The receptionist lifted her head from her computer monitor and chuckled under her breath, “Yes Mister Queen, Ms. Smoak mentioned that you’d be meeting her here. I’ll get a message to the lab. The faraday cage shielding is vital to the labs proper operation. It blocks unwanted electro-magnetic radiation from disrupting the equipment. Please have a seat, I’m sure they’ll be down shortly.”

Oliver resisted the urge to bury his head in this hand, _“Geez, their receptionist is smarter than me. I am really out of my element here. I hope the dinner will include more talk about business and less of about nanotechnology. I need somebody feeding me lines over the comms.”_

The elevator chimed, “saved by the bell,” he thought as turned to watch Felicity pop out of the elevator wearing one of her signature black pencil skirts and bright pink blouse. She was in mid-conversation, animatedly waving her hands as she spoke. An unusually short gentleman emerged next and the pair approached Oliver.

“Oliver, hi honey,” she leaned in for a quick kiss on the cheek. “Have you been waiting long? The lab was just so phenomenal. Mr. Piccino was so kind to show me his latest prototype.“

“Mr. Piccino, Oliver Queen, it is an honor to meet you sir,” said Oliver reaching out to shake hands with the diminutive man.

“The honor is all mine Mayor Queen. Hub City could really use a chief executive like yourself. Felicity has been talking nonstop about your latest sustainability initiatives. Please call me Bennett.”

Oliver turned to see Felicity smiling warmly, “Thank you for your kind words. I have a great team Mr. Piccino, I mean Bennett. Are you two ready for dinner? I’ve got a car waiting out front. Shall we.”

He held out his arm for Felicity as they followed Bennett out the door to the waiting car.

<============>

The dinner went by quickly. Bennett was quite a talker and gave Felicity a run for her money. Oliver was relieved that the conversation only occasionally dipped into the nitty-gritty of nanotechnology. Each time it did he swore she could sense it. Felicity would smile and give his hand a brief squeeze and then proceed to steer the conversation back to general business and the news of the day.

Bennett’s phone buzzed, “I need to take this, it’s my wife, please excuse me.” He stood and moved to a back corridor near the kitchen of the restaurant.

“Hello sweetie, I was just about to call you. I should be heading home shortly,” he said as he glanced back over at Oliver and Felicity.

_“Was it a productive dinner?”_

“Oh yes, we are all set to be the primary supplier of nano-tech magnets for Smoak Technologies.”

_“I could tell it was going well, you didn’t text me to ask me to call you with an excuse to end the meeting early.”_

“I do that quite often, don’t I honey. Well it is long past time I left Ms. Smoak and her man alone. The looks those two are giving each other you’d think they might spontaneously combust or worse. Talk about feeling like a third-wheel, I am so out of place.”

_“Bennett, just say your goodbyes and come home. Love you.”_

“I should be home in about 30 minutes, Jillian. I love you too.”

Bennett returned to the table. “Felicity,” but she didn’t look up, still in her own private world with Oliver.

“Ahem, Felicity,” he spoke in a loud tone, “I’m going to head home. I’ll have the signed agreements sent to you in the morning. Thank you again for coming to meet with me. I’ll look forward to a long and productive partnership between our companies.” he added.

Felicity’s attention returned, “Thank you Bennett, I hope you’ll be able to come and visit our facility in Star City, well once we’re a bit more established,” as she stood to shake his hand.

Oliver followed suit and stood to address their guest, “Bennett, it was great to meet you.”

Not wanting to lose another moment now that Bennett had left the restaurant Oliver turned to Felicity and said, “Let's go.”

“Don’t you want dessert? They have crème brulee.”

Oliver leaned over to speak directly into her ear, “Oh I definitely want dessert.”

“Oh.”

He caught the eye of their waiter and said, “Check please.”

Oliver was beside himself with excitement as he ushered Felicity into their waiting car.

“Thanks Rob, please take us back to the Hyatt.”

He couldn’t wait any longer. Oliver turned to Felicity and slid his fingers into her hair. He kissed her. It was soft and sweet, but soon escalated as he pulled her closer. He paused to catch his breath, “I’ve missed you.”

Felicity chuckled, “I’ve been with you the whole time. How did you miss me?”

“To be fair, I haven’t seen you much these past few days. You would leave so early and come back so late.”

“You do remember that this was a business trip Oliver, I needed to actually work. Well, it was hard to consider it work because it was so much fun.” She gave him another kiss. “I’m sorry if you were lonely.”

“I’ll let you make it up to me tonight,” he added as he began to nuzzle at her neck.

“Wait!”

Oliver stopped and looked a bit confused, “Huh?”

“I almost forgot, I got you a gift,” as she reached into her large tote bag and pulled out a brightly wrapped rectangular box.

“Should I open it now?”

“Of course. I hope you like it.”

He tore at the wrapping to reveal a book, **‘Nanotechnology For Dummies’**

“I don’t think you’re a dummy, but it looked like a good book to help you learn some of the basic terminology. Have I offended you? You have great business sense Oliver, but I’m going to need your help as my partner in this venture. We already work so well together at our night job, I just...”

“It’s perfect Felicity, thank you. I’ll start reading it on the plane tomorrow.”

“I hope you know Oliver, I want you to be my partner, in everything.”

Oliver couldn’t hold back his grin, “Partners. Sounds perfect to me.”

“Now where we, partner” Felicity trailed off as she leaned in to seal the deal with another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my husband for coming up with a cool fake product idea for the tech company supplier to make: neodymium magnets. I had never heard of them before - and they actually exist! I turned them into a nano-version for this story. (Take apart your computer’s hard drive and you’ll find some - on second thought, don’t try this at home). I couldn’t help including yet another time where Oliver needs to fend off an unwanted advance from a random women. I’m sensing a pattern here.


End file.
